What is a Compliance Link?
A Compliance Link is a bidirectional connection between a publisher's advertiser record and an advertiser's own chapter in The Taurus. It bridges the two sides of political advertising compliance: the publisher who distributes the advertisement and the organization (through its chapter) that sponsors it.
Under EU Regulation 2024/900, both publishers and advertisers carry responsibilities. A Compliance Link makes it possible for both sides to coordinate their compliance efforts within a single platform.
How a Compliance Link is created
A Compliance Link is established when a publisher creates an advertiser record and links it to a specific chapter. This typically happens in one of two ways:
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Publisher-initiated: The publisher creates an advertiser entry in their dashboard and selects the chapter it should be linked to. This might occur when a publisher onboards a new political advertiser and the advertiser's organization already has a chapter set up in The Taurus.
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Via invite acceptance: When a publisher sends an advertiser invite and the receiving organization accepts it, the system can automatically create the Compliance Link between the publisher's advertiser record and the relevant chapter.
Each Compliance Link has a status -- active, pending, or revoked -- reflecting the current state of the relationship. An active link means data flows freely between both sides. A revoked link disconnects the synchronization while preserving historical records.
What a Compliance Link enables
1. Data synchronization
The chapter stores sponsor defaults: legal name, postal address, email, payer information, controller details, and funding origin. When a Compliance Link is active, this data can flow from the chapter to the publisher's advertiser record, keeping both sides consistent.
This is particularly valuable for organizations that advertise across multiple publishers. Instead of manually updating sponsor information at every publisher separately, you maintain it once in your chapter settings. The linked publisher records stay synchronized.
The direction of data flow is from the chapter (the authoritative source of the advertiser's own identity data) to the publisher's advertiser record. The publisher sees the most current information without needing to request updates manually.
2. Complaint routing
EU Regulation 2024/900 requires that political advertisements include a mechanism for filing complaints. When a complaint is filed against a notice that is covered by a Compliance Link, both parties are notified:
- The publisher receives the complaint through their advertiser management dashboard.
- The chapter (and by extension, the organization) receives the complaint through their chapter dashboard.
This dual notification ensures that neither side is left unaware of compliance issues. Both the publisher and the advertiser organization can respond to complaints, coordinate their response, and track resolution.
3. Shared responsibility tracking
Both the publisher and the chapter can see the compliance status of notices associated with the link. This shared visibility means:
- The publisher can verify that the advertiser's sponsor data is complete and up to date.
- The chapter can see which publishers are distributing their advertisements and whether any compliance issues have been flagged.
- Both parties have a clear audit trail of the relationship and any data changes.
Where Compliance Links appear
The Compliance Link is visible in two places:
- Publisher's advertiser view: When a publisher opens an advertiser record that has a Compliance Link, they can see the linked chapter, the link status, and the synchronized data fields.
- Chapter's dashboard: The chapter's settings or dashboard area shows all active Compliance Links, listing which publishers have linked advertiser records and the current status of each link.
A practical example
Consider a national political party with local chapters in several cities. The party's Berlin chapter runs advertisements through three different publishers: an online news outlet, a social media platform, and a print publisher.
Without Compliance Links, each publisher would maintain its own copy of the Berlin chapter's sponsor information. If the chapter changes its postal address, someone would need to contact all three publishers to update the records.
With Compliance Links, the Berlin chapter updates its address once in The Taurus. All three publishers' advertiser records reflect the change through the active Compliance Links. When a complaint arrives at any of the three publishers, both the publisher and the Berlin chapter are notified immediately.
Managing Compliance Links
Compliance Links can have the following statuses:
- Active: The link is operational. Data synchronization and complaint routing are enabled.
- Pending: The link has been initiated but not yet confirmed by both parties.
- Revoked: The link has been deactivated. Data synchronization stops, but historical data and complaint records are preserved.
Organization administrators and publisher administrators can manage their respective sides of the Compliance Link. Revoking a link does not delete any data -- it simply stops the ongoing synchronization.
Summary
Compliance Links are the connective tissue between publishers and advertiser organizations in The Taurus. By linking a publisher's advertiser record to a chapter, both sides benefit from automatic data synchronization, coordinated complaint handling, and shared compliance visibility. For organizations that work with multiple publishers, Compliance Links eliminate redundant data management and ensure that both sides of the advertising relationship stay aligned.